Rain rain go away!

The entire EAPL was abandoned on Saturday with only a couple of games having significant game time. The Rams only made it is a far as the toss which they lost; and a temporary removal of the covers before their home game against Great Witchingham was abandoned.

The second team travelled to Waresley, where the Rams were bidding for a ninth successive win (in completed games) against the side rock bottom of Whiting’s Two. With great credit to both sides, and the home side in particular a reduced over game was agreed and a T20 format was adopted.

The home side lost the toss and were inserted by the Rams. Openers Angus Flint (27 from 31 balls) and Jamie Fensome (20 from 19) were making decent progress and reached forty-one without loss from the five overs. Sean Ward (1-21) struck to have Fensome caught by Ben Benson in a tight sixth over that yielded just one run. Bailey (1-25) then had Ben Irish caught by Matthew Hague in the very next over. Hague (1-14 from four overs) himself then bowled Will Paul in the next over to leave the home side forty-eight for three from eight overs. If the home side had ‘won’ the first five overs then the Rams were clear winners of the next three, that mini session yielding three wickets for just seven runs! The home side attempted to rebuild, with Flint and Robert Lowin and they added thirty-four runs although the Rams with Raven and Hague in tandem kept a strong grip on the scoring rate. Raven (2-21 from four) then struck twice in three balls in the fifteenth over to remove both Lowin (17 from 26) and Flint. The home side were on eighty-three for five off fifteen overs. Laurence Frederick (13 from 12) and Tom Cashman then attempted to inject some urgency before the former was bowled by Sawston skipper Ant Phillips with the score on ninety-eight in the eighteenth. The home skipper Ben Evans then tried to move the score on scoring a positive sixteen from just ten balls, before he was also bowled by his Rams counterpart Phillips (2-18). Tom Johnson and Cashman then got the home side to 121 for seven in their twenty overs.

The Rams needed 122 from 120 balls and despite losing Bailey bowled by Cashman (1-21from four) they set off at a gallop. Hague taking twenty-two off an over raced to 29 (off just 14 balls) taking the score to thirty-nine before he was bowled by Lowin (1-30) on the last ball of the fourth over. There was a slight respite before Ben Benson took fifteen off a Lewin over. The Rams were racing home at ninety-six for two off just sixty-six balls. Frederick then halted progress when he had Christy O’Brien (27 from 20) caught. But the damage had been done as he and Benson had added fifty-eight in just forty-four balls. Frederick (2-14) repeated Raven’s feat with two wickets in an over as he dismissed Matt Worsdale to leave the Rams on 100 for four.

The Rams had eight overs to knock off the required twenty-two but used only two more as Benson (52 not out from 40) and Phillips (9 not out from 6) got the Rams home for a six- wicket win. Last week the Rams lost out as their title rivals both won as they suffered weather frustration. There was a bit of evening up as both Burwell and Exning, and Saffron Walden were rained off this week. This leaves the Rams top of the pile by thirty-three points from Burwell, although they have a game in hand, with Walden a further eleven points adrift having played the same number of games as the Rams. In what is developing into a three-horse race the Rams still have to play both Burwell and Walden. Significantly however, the two chasing teams also play each other in the final game of the season! In the division’s batting statistics Hague is top and O’Brien is fourth with Marc Pearson and Will Bailey just outside the top ten. Raven is third in the wicket-taking stats with Bailey tenth.

The thirds travelled into the hills to Great Chishill hoping, in vain, to avoid a bit of relief rainfall. They too agreed to a reduced over game with the sides agreeing a twenty-five over contest. The home side won the toss and asked the visitors to bat. The Rams skipper would have been reasonably happy to see his side scoring at better than a run a ball when the game was abandoned with the Rams on a promising 126 for 5. Matthew Day continuing his decent run was forty-four not out. Sean Jenkins (26), Oliver Borley (16) and Niall Barber (11) all got starts. The skipper himself was on 17 not out when the contest was stopped with thirty-two balls left. Lucas Ling (2-23), Tom Duncan (1-41), Oliver Brunt (1-28) and Alastair Cockerton (1-16) picking up the wickets. The fourth team frustratingly, at least on Friday night, won when the opposition defaulted. The Rams even offering to lend the opposition a few players just to get the game on.